In The End
by TheShadows911
Summary: No one is normal in this world, no one is perfect either. Gaara looks back on the odd Leaf ninja Rock Lee, recognising is strength, happiness and kind nature, so he decides to find the flaw that Lee has hidden, but when he finds it he has to comfort his friend because no one else will. Sucky Summary! Not as sad as it sounds- Please R&R! Thank you


**Authors note: I haven't wrote anything in a while and I got bored, so this story started with no plans, plot or general idea, I just went with the flow and then fixed it all when I finished, I'm surprised it turned out as well as it did! By the way, the music the Lee plays (read and you'll find out) will be the music I was listening too on a loop while writing this, copy and paste this URL if you want to listen too: ** watch?v=fZkfEEl5Y4Y** ..Thank you for taking interest, I hope you enjoy! Any comments or questions don't be afraid to R&R!**

Finding someone normal in the ninja world was a rare find, if it was possible that is. No one in this world was 'normal', normal wasn't a category anymore, now being normal was being a civilian, leading their everyday lives to support their families and usually not being in any sort of danger. But it was even rarer to find someone genuinely kind, strong and happy, so when Gaara had found said person, he also wanted to find his single flaw.  
The so called saint was a slightly older shinobi by the name of Lee, Rock Lee. Lee was in no means normal, dressed in a shade of green that didn't even match the scenery, and running around like an energetic lunatic allowing that odd bob haircut to fly all over the place, but all the combinations of his strange appearance somehow made it work, and _it_ was Lee. Gaara had fought the overly enthusiastic ninja in the chunin exams, he was the first opponent to get the better of him, but ultimately the ending was inevitable as Lee lay unconscious before Gaara's feet like lamb to the slaughter. Due to Lee's unbeaten determination to fight on he was the first to not be killed by Gaara's fury, one of the two people in the world that stood as Gaara's equals.  
That endless determination was one of Lee's greatest traits, his stupidity was another, the way he leapt into battle without a thought was asking for a death sentence, there was a thin line between courage and what Lee was doing, but it wasn't like anyone was concerned for his safety, he could still hold his own in a fight.  
Lee also wasn't good with words, whenever his mouth opened it just ended up being a cry about 'hope' and 'youth' but his enthusiasm was there and so bold that it was infectious. He always had that same wide grin plastered across his face making everything okay with one simple glance and thumbs up, it was his silent motto.  
One of his less noticed traits was his kindness, he was always eager to help and most of the time on missions he was constantly picking up a lot of stray or injured animals, healing them and then releasing them, it was also true that if you gave Lee any sort of currency he would end up passing it wholeheartedly to the first homeless man he saw. Gaara knew somewhere there had to be a mistake, a flaw, and he was going to find it, it was true that no one is normal in this world, no one is perfect either.

He planned to find said flaw in the days to come; Lee and a few other leaf shinobi were on visitation to the sand, it was less of a mission, more of a well needed holiday. Gaara stood cross-armed at the gates of Suna, the sandy breeze whipping through his blood red hair, his shadowed eyes revealed the pure blue gems inside as four figures appeared on the horizon. A three man squad and a joinin; Might guy, Rock Lee, Tenten and Shikamaru, an odd bunch at first glance, and the second glance too. Gaara took proper stance to great the four "Welcome to Suna." His low, dry voice broke through the wind's whistles.

Guy bowed his head slightly "It's a pleasure to be here, isn't that right guy's?" A grin following his statement and question.

"It sure is!" Tenten, who was in a brighter mood than usual, answered first, a slight blush against her cheeks.

Shikamaru sighed "I guess so, but the journey was such a drag…" He lolled his head on his shoulders.

And with Lee's turn to answer, Gaara tensed up, expecting an explosion of enthusiasm, but instead all he got was;

"Mmhn."

A slight hum to signal 'yes'. He was stunned to tell the truth, could it be that the lovable ninja was unhappy? Surely it was impossible, but Lee never moved, never spoke, and didn't even look up. He got a few cautious glances from his teammates but not a sound uttered in question, curiosity or worry, just silence. Gaara swallowed the tension "…I'll show you to your rooms, where you can get settled." He led them inside, to the main building in the middle of Suna, the building that should rightly be the Kazekage's office, but is just an empty building since his death. On the outer realm of the building he showed the ninja four doors, each leading to their own room "Apologies for the accommodations size, but this is all we have available for now." Gaara couldn't believe how polite he was being, he sounded like a hotel rep.

Three turned to add their thanks, but Lee walked in without a word and closed the door swiftly behind him. All stood in a moment's peace before Gaara queried "What's wrong with him?"

All looked sheepish "He's been like this since we left, we don't know why, he just… Stopped talking," Tenten spoke first, her true concern being shown in her expression "I've never seen him like this before."

If this was a holiday it's not like they were having fun "Has anyone asked why?"

Again sheepish looks "There's no point," Guy stated coldly "I did not train him to let little things get in his way, whatever it is he should get over it." He entered his room and closed the door sharply behind, Tenten mimicking him.

The only one left was Shikamaru, who shook his head "I always wondered what would happen if Lee lost his nerve, it seems that everyone falls around him too."

Gaara understood what Shikamaru was saying, it was like Lee was the sole happiness and motivation in all of them, if he wasn't everything just collapses around him "Hasn't anyone talked to him?"

Shikamaru shrugged "I'm not the kind of guy the picks people up, that's Lee's job." And with that he went to his own room leaving Gaara alone in the blank corridor.

The way things had been left was baffling Gaara, surely Lee should be one of their closest friends, and yet they are shrugging his emotions off as if it's nothing. His pale palm lay against the wooden doors surface, daring to open the door so he could settle things himself, but as Shikamaru had said his own opinion, he himself was also not the type of person to even care, it's not like it was any of his business anyway, with that decided he left, knowing he had found Lee's flaw without doing a thing, now all he wanted to know was what had caused the strong ninja to break and shatter.

As Gaara's footsteps grew faint Lee's figure slipped down the door frame until he hit the floor, his lip jammed between his teeth to hold back any sound as hot tears streamed down his face. He had been praying for Gaara, or anyone to open that door, for that salvation, at this moment in time he would've given anything for it, but he had been left to sob quietly in his own pain and sorrow, wondering why no one will reach out their hand to help him.

…

The next day everyone was hard at work, since there was no major leader within Suna everyone had to do their own share of work, it didn't matter how small and tedious, it had to be done. Lee arrived late, did a respectable amount of work in silence, then left early. Gaara kept a close eye on his body movements during that time, in the many years of his loneliness he had learnt the art of eavesdropping on people's conversations and emotions without them realising, it was a useful skill. And as the four filed through heaps of paperwork he noticed those bandaged hands of his were shaking, barely, but it was there, he didn't think that Lee himself had realised, it was defiantly an interesting observation.  
The day was long, but the night was longer. It was basic knowledge to know that Gaara never slept, so he spent the dark hours practising his skills in secrecy, or sometimes he'd just lay in bed, allowing his body's strength to return as he'd wait for the scorching sun to rise on the sand plains in Suna. This night though was different; his training was paused be a sweet sound, the faint chime of a piano being played very softly, and Gaara decided to investigate. He knew his way around the large building perfectly fine, but trying to find the mysterious piano was harder than he thought, he never even knew that a piano was in the building. On the lowest level of the structure, at the back, was a dark, barely used corridor, Gaara had to admit that he couldn't even remember this part of the building, but surely enough he found the location for the heavenly noise. He opened the door slowly, praying that the hinges wouldn't interrupt the wonderful music being played by a very familiar figure, too familiar in fact. It was Lee, sat neatly on a worn red velvet stool as his bandaged fingers danced along the dusty pure white ivory keys, making a song, a song that spoke a story of sadness but at the same time glowed in the dim room. Gaara stood silently, leaning on the door frame until the song disappeared into a misted silence, and a small sigh from the green man who played it, Gaara instinctively gave three claps.

Lee, shocked by the sudden noise, jumped up from the stool and swung around "Gaara!" He gasped "I-I err, I wasn't doing anything! I just was erm, d-dusting it off a little…" His hands clasped together and he fumbled around, trying to put everything back the way it was.

Even in the dim light Gaara could notice the dark tone under his eyes "Couldn't sleep?" He questioned, he didn't get an answer, he tried a different method "What was that called?"

"W-What? The piano?" Lee pushed down the heavy cover to hide the piano keys, accidently catching one of his fingers in the fall.

"No," Gaara entered the room "The music you were playing, I haven't heard it before, did you write it?"

Lee was ready to leave, but now Gaara was blocking the exit "Well," His hand entered his shaggy hair "Y-yeah, I guess so."

"It was nice." Gaara complimented, although the expression on his face never changed.

Lee's eye's opened wider slightly, a bubble of excitement popped inside him "Really?" He asked, breathing a chuckle.

"Yes," Gaara replied sternly "What was it called?" He asked again

Lee blinked, surprised by the sudden interest "I-I don't know, I never give anything I play a name, I never thought about it."

There, yes, was Lee's stupidity slipping through the cracks once more "Can you play it again?"

"A-again?"

Gaara huffed, quite fed up with how the conversation to toing and throwing, usually Lee wasn't this bad in conversation "Yes, can you play it again." He repeated, this time less of a question, more of a command.

"I-I guess so." Lee brushed himself off and sat back at the piano.

Gaara walked inside and took a separate stool to sit on, he laid his arms and head on the piano surface and let his eyes close as the music began again. This time though, it sounded magical, he could feel the vibrations from the notes and the dramatic impact each one gave, although it was a simple melody, it spoke to him, seeping in to his very soul. Lee only played a small section before ending the song, but it was enough "…Where did you learn to play?" Gaara was interested.

Lee let out a short breath, staring at the milky white keys, lightly running his fingers along their cold surface "When I was younger, i-in the academy I mean… I didn't really have any friends, so when we had a break from our lessons I had nowhere to go, no one to talk to…" He recalled the loneliness all too well, and the bullying "…One day I found an empty room, a music room that was barely ever used and no one was ever in it… So I spent my time there instead, and taught myself how to play." A slight smile creeping on his lips, the amount of joy that single piano brought him was unreal, to express your emotions through music, it was everything to him.

Gaara thought it was moderately impressive, he didn't bother say much else though as Lee seemed to slip into a dazed thought.

"…Gaara?" Lee finally spoke.

Gaara tilted his head in response so his eyes could meet Lee's, but Lee wasn't looking, he was just staring into nothingness.

"…Did I… Do something wrong?"

Something inside of Gaara snapped at that very moment, he wasn't sure what it was, but it felt like his chest had been squeezed tightly and then his throat was closed up. It was a hard effort to swallow the feeling, but he kept it down. He promptly raised his head from the counter and turned to give Lee his answer, but his mouth was left agar, no words rolled his tongue, as he found a sight that he thought he'd never truly see. Lee, eyes shielded by his hair, lip between his teeth and hot flowing tears trailed his cheeks. The feeling Gaara had received repeated itself, only worse. Gaara's stunned eyes glanced down at Lee's hands that were shaking violently, Lee was trying with all his might to keep his emotions at bay, but he had been trying for so long, so desperately so no one would see that something had to give, and it was giving, there was no point holding it back any longer. With an aching chest Gaara placed a palm on the older boy's shoulder, in an attempt to comfort him, Gaara had never done this before, but surely the basics were touch and embrace.

That initial contact made Lee choke, he could feel himself collapse as if everything he wanted to keep hidden was revealing itself, and his body was acting without his command. Through gritted teeth he involuntary whimpered and then fell into Gaara's chest, in the best attempt to muffle his cries. At this moment, buried in his friends clothing, soaking them with his tears, he didn't care what is hollers sounded like, what his puffy cheeks and sore eyes looked like, he just clung on for dear life as all the sadness and pain he had felt but wasn't able to express exploded in that very moment, in that instance, time stopped still.

Gaara tried not to tense up or seem shocked as Lee had a full on break down into his chest, twitching slightly he gradually placed his hands on Lee's back, rubbing up and down. It wasn't a full on embrace, but he figured it was good enough.

…

The next morning Gaara rose from his meditative rest for the first time rather tired, for last night had been emotionally tiring, or at least that's what he presumed. Lee had cried for what seemed like an eternity until he fell asleep within Gaara's arms, so he had to carry the heavy ninja back to bed, he couldn't help but think back to the part when he subconsciously placed a blanket on his sleeping form, he was so calm, so… something. Gaara brushed it off and resumed the day's work, except for one worrying factor, all day long, Lee never appeared. When everything was finally finished Gaara wondered around trying to locate him, he wasn't in any corridors, not his room, not even the music room, so he resorted back the one place he'd probably most likely be, but shouldn't be; the gym. And he was correct, in a bright lit room Lee was furiously pounding his frustrations out on a hanging sandbag, he rolled his eyes "You missed your work."

Lee never stopped the relentless attack, sweat rolling down his temple "I didn't realise the time." He grunted.

It was a poor excuse "You've been hired to do a mission, and yet you skip?"

Again Lee grunted "I didn't realise the time."

Gaara cocked a bare eyebrow, leaning on the door frame "Really?" He half-heartedly teased.

Lee groaned in anger "Yes really! N-now will you just leave me alone?" He quickly snapped, losing his usually well behaved temper.

"You didn't exactly want to be left alone last night, did you?" Gaara queried, forcing Lee to end the bashing of the sand bag.

Heat rose to his cheeks in embarrassment, he looked away to hide it "It was a moment of weakness." He hissed, letting Gaara know that he did remember.

"That wasn't weakness." Gaara hissed back, no, that was strength, pure courage to not only tell a someone your feelings, but to _show_ them, even if it wasn't exactly intentional, it didn't matter, Gaara only wished he could put his thoughts into words.

"Y-_es_, it was," Lee's voice cracked, mentally scolding himself as he done so, he looked back towards Gaara and stood tall, he was going to show him, no, tell him face to face that he did not need him, nor anybody's concern "I just!-" was as far as he got, before doubling over in a coughing frenzy. He covered his mouth and cleared his throat and wouldn't have thought more of it, until he felt the blood on his hands run down his fingers. Instantaneously, a ringing deafened him and his vision tripled, all he could hear in his ears was his own heartbeat, and as he collapsed over his own weight, the last thing he saw was Gaara running towards his aid.

…

For hours Gaara sat by a clean hospital bed, with the unconscious Lee sleeping soundly on it. After Lee's fainting, Gaara carried him, even though he was quite heavy, to medical attention. As Gaara looked back at it at the time he had been quite worried, slightly frantic, since many ninja's were wary of him due to his own reputation, he was worried that Lee could die because of Gaara's past, so he argued that the medical ninja could not deny a patient, that it would look bad to the leaf and sand treaty, that he would leave Suna, he begged, he didn't know which beg made them act but he didn't care, as long as Lee got treatment. Lee, when he had been Gaara's arms, was slurring and had an awful flush on his face, he was sweating and twitching but now, now he lay deadly silent, pale as a ghost, the only clue of his heart still beating was the shallow, soft breaths he took that made his chest rise and fall, Gaara refused to take his eyes off that motion just in case he did in fact stop breathing.  
After a long enough time, the medical ninja's assured him that Lee had collapsed due to pure exhaustion; Gaara knew it was both physical and _mental_ exhaustion. It explained why Lee had got so upset all of a sudden, his body wasn't able to cope anymore to the point where he collapsed. And now that Lee was out of his regular clothes and in a hospital gown all the painful evidence was in plain view, some scars made him wonder how the injury wasn't fatal, others made his wonder if his arm was cut off then sewn back on, he knew if Lee was awake he would blame it on battle injuries even though each one probably held different significance and memory's, for instance, the arm that Gaara had personally crushed was heavily marked unlike the other, it made Gaara not want to think about it all that much.  
Instead he sat there thinking about how long he would have to wait for his so called 'dear friends' to not only to realise Lee was missing, hurt and hospitalised but to care. It sounded harsh, but the longer Gaara waited, the more his temper soared, coming up with more criticisms every minute. He decided, even though he must not mean a lot to Lee, he must wake up to a familiar face instead of no one, so he would stay until someone turned up.  
Becoming side tracked from his trail of thought he noticed that Lee was lightly shivering, he stood and collected a thin blanket from a nearby wardrobe and spread it over him, only realising that Lee's eyes were partially open when he went to rearrange his pillow. Gaara stared for a moment, standing over him, those obsidian eyes looking extremely dazed and empty "…Lee?" He said his voice aloud, trying to get a response. Lee sat up slowly, Gaara jumped to help him and then manoeuvred his pillows so he could lean back, then gave him a plastic up half full of clean, fresh water. Helping him take a sip as his hands were too shaky, waiting a few minutes, than the response.

"…G-Garra?" His voice was hoarse and weak, rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand and then taking another look at the red head "Wh-what happened..?"

Gaara took a seat back in his chair but scooted so he was right by Lee's bed "You collapsed, from exhaustion it seems… Looks like you haven't been having proper sleep." He confronted Lee, he wanted Lee to confess right now that yes, he was not a robot, and his flaw was that he couldn't keep up a brutal training regimen and a mental positivity all the time.

Lee's head dunked down, first gathering his bearings, then considering his friends words, Gaara was right, he hadn't paid attention to what his own body was telling him and like always tried to hide it, tried to paint over it with a colourful array of yellow happiness and electric blue energy, but the paint started to crack and chip, and each time he painted over it looked worse because he didn't allow himself to remove the paint that was underneath, so that he could paint on a blank canvas "O-okay…" He sighed, rolling his thumbs together "I wasn't getting enough sleep… And it led to me… Feeling depressed."

"Maybe, but the fact that your friends didn't offer any help is slightly agitating." Slightly was defiantly the wrong word, it was immensely aggravating.

Lee slowly recalled the day he left the leaf, he was tired and the majority of his muscles ached, coupled with a sore throat at the time, he tried to act as normal as possible, but instead of greeting the other ninjas with a bout of energy, he simply said his hello's with a small smile. And then Tenten snapped jokingly at him "You're awfully quiet today! Cheer up will you?!" From that point on Lee's mouth had been clamped shut, sinking deeper and deeper into his own sorrows, afraid that if he opened his mouth he would yell or cry or something that wasn't normal, something that wasn't Lee.

When he got no answer Gaara felt the need to describe the situation, he leaned over, resting his left elbow on the bed "Look Lee, no matter what Guy tells you, you cannot keep working as hard as this or you'll end up killing yourself," He pointed out grabbing Lee's attention "You may _want _to be like him but he can do ninjutsu, whereas you can't, so there's no real point to forcing yourself to be just as good," Gaara took in a breath "My advice would be to do it in your own way, your own style, re-connect with yourself. If your friends don't like it, it doesn't matter, because I'm here, and I'm not going to sit by and watch you kill yourself just because you have a smile on your face." It was the best way Gaara could put it, although slightly longer then he had expected. What he didn't expect was for Lee to fully learn over and give him a full three second kiss to the cheek, stunned he looked over to the massively blushing Lee, squirming in his place and giving him quick and nervous glances.

Lee didn't know why he had done it, what Gaara had said had filled him with so much joy, that he did care, someone cared, he wanted to thank him and with his emotions overwhelming he did some blind quick thinking and kissed him "…Uhh, th-thankyou for saying… All that s-stuff…" He noticed Gaara had his palm on his cheek, and he had the faintest blush on him too.

Gaara wasn't quite sure what to say until Shikamaru and Tenten walked in the door, looking blasé.

"Hey, we-"Shikamaru was cut off as sand engulfed him to his neck then tossed him out the door, letting him hit the concrete wall at full force then slide down in pain.

Tenten froze, with no weapons or scrolls she was powerless against Gaara. He was sat on his chair, not even looking in her direction as his sand slithered her way and coiled around her like a snake.

"Gaara don't!" Lee hissed.

Gaara eased, but didn't drop his guard "They shouldn't be here." He growled, feeling awfully possessive and protective over Lee.

Tenten laughed nervously "W-well, we, urhh, just came back from seeing Guy Sensei actually."

"Guy Sensei?" Lee tilted his head "Why? Is something wrong?"

"Y-yeah," Shikamaru crawled back in, clutching his middle "He collapsed as well."

Gaara literally hit himself with his own palm, of course he had. Lee and Guy were practically clones, if one collapsed why wouldn't the other? It would explain Guy's hostility and coldness.

"Doctors said it was exhaustion, we didn't realise you had too until we saw the names on the hospital rep's list," Shikamaru shrugged, placing his hands in this pocket, and then smirked "We're sorry we didn't realise."

Tenten bowed slightly "I'm sorry too!"

Lee could feel his heart swell; he fiddled with his blanket "T-that's okay, besides! Gaara was here." He broke out the best grin he could, not quite what everyone was used too, but it was an improvement.

…

On the last day Lee was feeling sad again, not for the same reason as last time but for the fact that he would be leaving Gaara. Thanks to the red head he was able to let go of his sorrow and patch things up with his friends and even Guy sensei, Lee had decided he wanted to thank Gaara so he wandered off to the music room, and played the piano until he arrived.

"You shouldn't be playing that sad old song again you know." After a few minutes the familiar voice arrived.

Lee smiled "Is this better?" He quickly changed to tune to a snappy, happy song, one that would be often heard in hic-towns or rundown bars.

"Much better." Gaara took a seat on the same stool as Lee, attempting to press a few keys to make a melody that just ended up being a mixture of random notes.

With both hands now in his lap Lee tensed up a little, feeling heat rise to his cheeks "Gaara I- … I-I just wanted to…" He struggled to find the words "…I wanted to-err, th-thank you for everything you did for me… Even if you didn't need to."

Gaara chuckled, and changed the conversation "You need to teach me how to play piano."

Lee chuckled back "Yeah, I guess so."

Gaara smirked deviously, Lee still wasn't looking at him "You are coming back aren't you?" He said in the loneliest voice he could fake.

Lee twisted round "Of course!-"

"Good." Gaara jumped into his private space, laughing under his breath as he watched Lee's facial colour change rapidly to a deep red. Staring right into obsidian eyes as he pushed his soft hair behind his ear, then trailed his hand down to his chin, and forced their lips together.

Lee was ready for it, he never tensed or protested, and he just wrapped his arms around Gaara's neck and pushed back. One hand rummaging through the blood red hair he had grown to love, he wondered what, in a few short days, had turned friendship, into something more, something much, much more, whatever it was, it was magical.

Gaara had Lee tightly by the hip and back, tugging him closer inch by inch. He was possessive of him now; he wanted Lee, nothing more, nothing less, just Lee. His pale hand trailed up his flexible spine until he could caress his silky hair. He wanted to stay like that forever; he wanted to much more, but eventually, they both had to separate for air.

Lee lay his head and Gaara's chest, just as he done a few nights ago in this very room, but not for the same reason. He sighed longingly "Gaara I-" He bit his lip, he didn't want to ruin the moment and scare Gaara off.

"I love you."

Lee jumped, almost not believing those words to come from Gaara's mouth voluntarily, his eye's welled up and he stroked the redheads cheek "…I love you too." He admitted whole-heartedly, yanking at Gaara's collar so they could have another sweet kiss.

Gaara had found Lee's flaw, and fixed him. The only flaw he had now was he loved the deadly one tailed Gaara of the sand, but he didn't care, because the only way he could see to fix him was to love him right back. Even though love wasn't Gaara's best known emotions, his instincts told him this was it, to help, hold and kiss and care, to care with all his strength, because he had realised that Lee instead of being the happiness in other people's lives, Lee had become the sole happiness in his life, without even trying.

**And there you go! Thank you so much for reading, any questions or comments, good or bad don't be afraid to R&R!**


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